25 Sep Do incentives work? Here’s how to boost staff performance

How much of the global workforce would you say is truly engaged with their work? Half? A third? Twenty percent? It’s actually a lot less than you think.

Only 13% of the global workforce is truly engaged.

But what’s more worrying is that 63% are not engaged and 24% are actively disengaged. This means the majority of workers, by a long way, are not fully focused on their jobs and this should be ringing alarm bells for employers.

Low engagement can lead to high turnover, reduced productivity and a drop in profitability.

So, what can be done to reverse this?

Incentive programs have long been used by companies to try and boost performance, but these often fall short of expectations for a number of reasons.

An incentive, whether it be an internal employee program or customer loyalty program or a channel sales incentive takes a lot more work to do well than people often realise.

For starters, every company is different so there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. But this is often an approach taken where companies will implement a program without tailoring it to themselves and then just hope for results. This ‘set and forget’ method doesn’t adapt to the way your organisation might be operating, which will be different to others.

But incentive programs can work with the right approach.

Implementing an incentive program is designed to drive specific business results – retaining key sales people, strengthening partner relationships and driving them to exceed KPIs – so it should be focused on the metrics and measuring outcomes. This means being consistently monitored and optimised – even after it is launched into market.

In a competitive marketplace, there is increased pressure on teams to go the extra mile. The right reward and incentive program can transform your sales and wider operations and keep your teams and your partners motivated.

This is how Hachiko ensures we are delivering the desired outcomes to our clients. Through the creation of award-winning incentive, recognition and engagement programs, we inspire people and companies to do more.

By bringing together our experiences working with many companies across multiple industries, we can present ideas and strategies to a client that we know will work.

Engage your partners to boost sales performance

Maintaining a strong relationship with your partners and resellers is key to a successful channel as indirect channel sales can make up a substantial piece of sales revenue.

But as the challenge of managing customer and channel partner relationships grows more and more complex, it’s now critical to provide your partners with the skills, knowledge and motivation to drive sales and boost market share.

One way to do this is with a channel incentive program that allows you to strengthen your channel relationships and help your business stay competitive.

Boosting Trend Micro’s sales through channel partners

We engaged with Trend Micro, a global leader in security software and solutions,to create an individual sales incentive program to reward sales of their products through channel partners.

We created a fully-branded, reloadable and personalised Trend Micro TrendSetter VISA card for every individual who registered into the TrendSetter program. Regular processing of eligible sales data was done and rewards were paid to the individual’s card. A full communication strategy underpinned the program, which included promotions, product updates and reward offers.

The Results

Program registrations and sales exceeded targets. Communication rates showed over double the industry standard for registered members and partner engagement was positive.

If you’re thinking about implementing a channel incentive program or are currently using one which isn’t getting results, let’s have a chat to see what’s possible for your business.